Can a racoon open a barn door latch?

[alicia-TX]

Get some snap rings to lock those latches.

A drum with a locking ring will keep feed safe. I bought a used apple juice barrel locally.

 

[Birdielee]

We will soon be moving to a new house house on 3 acres and getting ready to build the new coop. Thanks for all input on the subject. I’ve been seeing these paw prints all over the new property. I’m assuming raccoon. Thoughts?

That one looks to me classically like raccoon. The others earlier on, in OP and on a roof didn't- the toes looked so wide.

I've seen greasy opossum tracks on slate when i was a kid, after they ate cat food. They looked very different.

Maybe i'm wrong, but these tracks you posted have always been at the stream's edge in my woods, and i have always assumed they were coons. I Still think so.

What is SSS? I assume it somehow means kill.

 

[GC-Raptor]

What is SSS?

Shoot, dig a hole and don't tell anyone. GC

 

[Frankiegirl]

That one looks to me classically like raccoon. The others earlier on, in OP and on a roof didn't- the toes looked so wide.

I've seen greasy opossum tracks on slate when i was a kid, after they ate cat food. They looked very different.

Maybe i'm wrong, but these tracks you posted have always been at the stream's edge in my woods, and i have always assumed they were coons. I Still think so.

What is SSS? I assume it somehow means kill.

Yes SSS I learned is shoot, shovel, shut up!!

thanks for the input...looking forward togetting out of the suburbs but not looking forward to the new threats!

 

[gointothebirdsfarm]

I'm late into this chat, but I was shocked when I discovered that raccoons will eat chickens. We have had our share of problems with them, and discovered very quickly how brutal they are. Last summer we had something getting into my chickenhouse, and could not figure out what it was. This creature would just leave the chickens that it killed in the chickenhouse, and not even eat them, which really made me upset. The worst, though, was that we had a setting hen at the time that I had put in a roomy chicken "cage" inside my chicken house with food and water, so that she could set on her eggs in peace without the other hens trying to sit on the nest with her, and so she wouldnt try to move from nest to nest. It was working perfectly, until the horrendous creature got in one night, reached THROUGH THE BARS, and killed the poor darling. I could have bawled. He had plenty of other chickens to choose from, but he had to kill the defenseless one, who was just doing what nature intended. We tried everything, and to this day have not figured out how he got in. We came to the conclusion that it was a weasel, because we had even built a new wall to try to stop the massacre. Finally we caught an enormously fat raccoon in a live trap, who met his demise when he was used to train coon dogs. I felt no remorse.

 

[gointothebirdsfarm]

This summer we also ran into trouble...something was getting in my feed room and leaving a HUGE mess. We tried a live trap: nope didnt work. Somehow it got out of it while eating all of the cookies and burnt toast to its liking. I came up with the idea of trying a piece of meat to the top of the box trap, so the creature would have to jiggle around in there trying to get it off. Needless to say, when my uncle went over there Sunday morning to check them there were coins everywhere! I had caught the mama in one trap, a teenager was in another trap, and then there were two more running around! They had had a feast the night before.

 

[Hidrainja4]

Lost one to a raccoon because the door swung down and we had a lock on one side but not the other. The raccoon lifted / twisted to door and reached in a caught a chicken. Now that swing down door has a lock on both sides. Padlocks get to be a nuisance in the winter. Also you can not kill every possum(they eat ticks), raccoon, coyote, dog , hawk, weasel, ect out there. You can make your coop predator proof. latches and padlocks even in winter.

 

[HAPPYCHICKENLADY17]

i use carabiners on all my latches as well, so far they work for me

 

[Hand Mama]

About a month ago I caught a raccoon after I noticed fish guts were dug up from the mulch pile. I set a trap and made the mistake of letting it go, because I figured my set up was strong enough, it had also dug up dead chickens from a dog attack a week before. Then 4 days later I catch a baby so now I'm afraid they will open my barn doors that my coop is inside, we have 4 door to the barn with the same twist latches. I bent nails to put in were the lock goes. It would be too much of a hassle for locks so are carabiners coon proof? Inside the barn It would be easy for a coon to get into the coop, I have open vents on the top and a chicken wire door that one could easily break/crawl through, the barn is solid other than the doors.

Hi, I watched a nature programme recently & it was about raccoons, they have hands that move the same as ours & they actually like trying to figure things out, basically the harder it is to get in your barn the more they'll try & eventually figure it & they remember too

 

[neo71665]

Hi, I watched a nature programme recently & it was about raccoons, they have hands that move the same as ours & they actually like trying to figure things out, basically the harder it is to get in your barn the more they'll try & eventually figure it & they remember too

Yep they love challenges. I have about a dozen of the trick treat things really meant for dogs or cats I use with my two. Have to rotate them out because they get the hang of just one pretty fast. I also have to rearrange their enclosure pretty regular or they get bored with it.